Vaio Battery Problem

[gsrking]

Hi all, I have recently received a new Viao as part of an insurance claim. The latop is great, good spec and all the bells and whistles. But the battery does not last at all. Now
I don't expect it to last that long being a large screen and everything, but about 45 mins seems a bit low. Has anyone any ideas?

Many thanks

GSRKing.

PS. The model is VGN-AR31M

[Blencogo]

Hi GSRKing and welcome to Club Vaio.

Sony say Up to 01:25 with VAIO Optimized (Brightness Level 5) and everything else turned off - so about half of that is not unusual.

Have you got the Power Management set to 'Battery Optimised'? Click on the battery icon in the system tray and have a look!

[gsrking]

Hi, thanks for the reply (very quick, impressed). The battery icon says Vaio Optimized. First thing I checked. I have turned the brightness down. This battery life is with the laptop just idle, doing nothing apart from the screensaver.

Thanks

GSRKing.

PS. I'm not a normal user, I provide tech support for a antivirus company, including forum replies and also i'm a qualified hardware engineer. Just thought i would mention so if you need me to check things then you can in a 'techie' language!!

[tonybeard]

Hardware engineer eh? brilliant. Can I ask you about my ABIT AN8 64 bit mobo. It won't boot up and the digital display gives a number 50 error code or 'USB won't initialize'. I've set the jumpers to disable and use a ps2 plug keyboard but all i see is a spark inside the rear usb hub then the boot screen hangs with 50 error code. its like the usb is shorting but ant ideas?

[gsrking]

Hi, I think it maybe broke (to use a technical term!!) If you are seeing sparks then not a good sign. You could try resettinge the bios to default, but of course you maybe pulling my leg due to my last post...

Cheers GSRKing.

[Blencogo]

I'm sure you have turned everything off that you don't need - bluetooth, wireless etc.

Unfortunately, I suspect it is near to normal for such a desktop replacement machine. The battery in my AR31S only lasts about 25 minutes if you set the processor to 'performance' and play a Blu-Ray movie although I would expect an hour on an Optimised setting.

I think I would telephone Sony Vaio-Link Support as they will have a diagnostic you can run to see if the battery is failty or has an abnormally high rate of discharge.

http://support.vaio.sony.co.uk/contacts/contacts.asp?site=voe_en_GB_cons&tp=vaio&cm=phone&cc=UK